Glory Days
by babygong
Summary: "The glory days were when she was 12 and life was simple. Dirty tactics were only for the enemy, death and gore were the last things they thought of and victory was seemingly in sight." Toph Gen fic. AU


Glory Days

**AN: Oneshot. Toph's simple musings. Kind of my little AU that's a 'what if the war lasted longer and it was a more realistic war?' Honestly, the war in ATLA was really unrealistic for me. I still loved it that way, but I also like entertaining the idea of if the war had dragged on another 3 years (which is when this is set) and people, y'know, **_**actually**_** died. Hm, there's a bit of swearing but not much. Not much of a plot, which is why it's a gen fic. You know, writing in present tense is really growing on me. No pairing.**

**So pretty much in this story they failed to stop the Fire Nation during Sozin's Comet, but the Fire Nation never came up with the **_**brilliant**_** idea to just BURN EVERYTHING (honestly I found that the most crackpot plan I'd ever heard of). During the comet the Fire Nation managed to gain even more control in the Earth Kingdom. For the past three years the GAang has been recruiting people for a Resistance army and fighting the Fire Nation with their army, trying to drive them back from the Earth Kingdom.**

**Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender belongs to its rightful creators. Which is not me. Since seriously, my artistic skills and writing skills are both lacking. But if you think I'm good enough to have created something that awesome I'd be flattered. So I pretty much don't own anything in this story, except for some shit I made up. I know some writers will find out all this info on history in the Universe and trivia on the characters, but I am too damn lazy to do that.**

Toph often wonders, what the fuck she signed up for. Some nights a small part of her whispers, _This isn't what I agreed to. I signed up to teach the Avatar Earthbending, travel the world and have the time of my life. Not some goddamn war that's none of my business._ She knows that part of her is wrong. This war is completely her business, it just seems like it's kind-of-sort-of possible to ignore it if she went back home. Home, where everything was mostly untouched, on the Eastern side of the Earth Kingdom, just far enough from Fire Nation raids to be able to turn a blind eye to them. Not to mention that her parents are so stinking rich that even if the Fire Nation took over they could surely pay their way to safety.

She wonders how her parents are now. Are they safe? Is her hometown is still untouched? Here at the Resistance's Headquarters in the war-ravaged Western Coast of the Earth Kingdom it's hard to imagine an untouched town, houses not burnt, people uninjured. Peace seems like a distant memory and an even more distant hope. Time has turned her into a realist, not that she was even much of a dreamer to begin with. She wonders what she would say to her parents if they were here. _I'm a general of the army, the greatest Earthbender in history: second to none. I invented Metalbending, I taught the Avatar and dozens more Earthbending and Metalbending. Without me this army would have fallen long ago. I'm helping the Avatar bring peace and balance to the world._ She doesn't know what they'd say. She's realized long ago that she knows her parents only a touch more than they know her.

She knows her father was, no, _is_ a fierce businessman. Their family fortune didn't appear out of thin air after all. She knows he has a sharp mind and can find a business opportunity anywhere. Even in a world where the Fire Nation is in complete control. No doubt that he would find a way to twist that into a business advantage as well. Who knows, perhaps he's already done so.

Her mother is almost as shrewd as her father. She helps with his business and without her his business dealings would have been a far cry from the vast industry they are today. A charmer she is, but always with an underlying purpose. She's observed her mother enough to know that the woman is never friendly simply because she likes you, never generous without plans for future repayment. Had she been interested in it she would have been an incredibly successful politician, but public office never tempted her. She, like her husband, puts the highest value of all on money. They are a formidable pair, the two of them. Together they made the Bei-Fongs a name.

Their take on different types of benders and nations is startlingly indifferent. Whoever is in power, they know they will survive through their business. Whether it's Water Tribe carved tokens, Earth Kingdom metal coins, or Fire Nation paper bills, money is money. And when you have it you can do the most powerful bending of all: bending the wills of others. It's only a matter of how much you have, and for the Bei-Fongs that isn't and will probably never be a problem.

It baffles Toph that such intelligent people would treat their daughter in such a way, rejecting her strength instead of welcoming it and using it, coddling her instead of teaching her their ways. She's tried time and time again to think of why they can't accept her as herself, whythey insist on trying to shield her from the world. From what she knows she thinks it would be most logical for them to view her in a clinical, cold way, thinking of the opportunities and advantages she gives them. Surely her bending prowess would give them some kind of edge in business they would want to use. The way they treat her doesn't make any sense based on what she knows about their characters, but then again she never really knew them that well and they never knew her at all. She muses to Sokka one day that this may be the root of the problems with their relationship and he rolls his eyes at her.

She can't remember the last time she felt a thrill while fighting. She tries to bring up the old memories of facing off in a ring, the crowd cheering madly, adrenaline coursing through her veins. It feels like another lifetime. The last three years blur together of battle after battle, training troops, and strategy meetings full of bickering that give her headaches.

She is pretty sure Aang thinks of his long dead Air Nomad friends and all the people he has to save while he fights. Being the Avatar he must be nobler than the likes of her. Katara probably feels almost the same way as Aang, the two are so alike it's uncanny. She can chalk up Aang's sheer goodness as being the mystical, spiritual Avatar powers, but Katara is just another person like Toph. And yet she still manages to be so damn pure_._

For all the suspicion the others gave him in the beginning, Zuko is the easiest for Toph to read. He's a wretched liar, unlike his sister. She tells him that it must not run in the family jokingly, but he pauses thoughtfully for a long while. In the end he tells her it probably does, but he lucked out and didn't get it. She knows that while Zuko fights he thinks of his honor, no doubt about that since it's all she freaking hears him talking about. In every fight he dreams of their future triumph and feels that they are moving closer and closer to it. Life for Zuko is all about theatrical, grand actions and dramatic betrayals. Zuko is truly the epitome of fire, roaring ten feet high like a bonfire at times and guttering in extreme lows like a dying candle at others.

Sokka, Toph thinks proudly, is and always will be their top strategist. She thinks that in battle he's the most different from the rest of their team since he's not a bender, but also since he's such a skilled strategist. Instead of relying on training, muscle memory and instinct like the rest of them, Sokka is thinking, always thinking. It's only the fact that he can make his ingenious plans so quickly that prevents him from getting burned to a crisp while deep in thought. That and the fact that the rest of them cover for him knowing that eventually he will think of a plan for them all.

Toph used to feel a buzz while fighting, but all she feels in the heat of battle now is the furious desperation to simply _stay alive. _She doesn't really want to win; she just doesn't want to lose. Because losing means pain and death.

Aang is the Commander of the entire army. He leads them into every fight and makes all major tactical decisions. Katara heads the Medical Division, healing the wounded and training new healers to be able to heal and fight simultaneously, an invaluable skill on the battlefield. Zuko is Aang's right-hand man and also functions as something of a bodyguard. Since there are few other firebenders in their army it isn't worth having him heading a division of his own. They also decide, much to his annoyance, that he is too hotheaded to lead a division. Aang doesn't like to waste a skilled fighter, so most of the time he sends him to the places that need him most despite his bodyguard role.

Suki is probably the most skilled at leading out of their division heads which are Toph, Sokka, Katara and herself. She has the most experience at leading and coordinating attacks between teams. She's also very level-headed and rarely makes a decision out of emotion. Sokka doubles as a division head, leading his division into battle and giving them orders, and as Head Strategist. He advises Aang along with their other strategists, but in the end it's always Aang's decision.

Toph, despite many reassurances from others, thinks that she is a crappy general. She's not used to coordinating her attacks with a large number of people and she tends to focus down on her and her battle alone, instead of looking at the grand scheme of things. Her main 'strategy' is to mow down every enemy in sight. This 'strategy' doesn't quite work when you're leading a division however. Sokka gives her tips on strategies to use and adapting to different situations and she does her best. It must be working since she hasn't lost too many more soldiers than the other divisions, but that may just be luck.

Sometimes Toph despairs at how much of an idealist Aang is. He has definitely matured in the three years she has known him, but he and Katara are still hopeless optimists. It's not a bad trait for a person, but it is for the Commander of an army. She knows there is no way they will win this war by being honorable. Not when the enemy isn't. She feels bad about going behind his back along with Suki and Sokka. Together the three of them secretly go through with some of the underhanded tactics Aang condemns. Aang, Katara and Zuko know nothing about it and they plan to keep it that way. It's a precarious situation and morally wrong, but she sees no other choice. The three of them are the pragmatists and have long known that there's no victory for the noble and pure in this war. Sacrifices must be made and in the end someone has to do it. She just wishes it didn't have to be her.

Zuko likes to tell her that someday they will look back on these days and reminisce about them as their so-called 'glory days'. She snorts and punches him in the arm. Typical Zuko, his head in the future and thinking of honor and glory. She can't for the life of her see how fighting a war is glorious. She tells him so, but he only shakes his head and tells her that she won't understand until it's all over.

Toph sees no glory in warfare whatsoever. She sees her men burned down on an almost daily basis. It's been two years and they've gained little ground. She knows it, the soldiers know it and all of them have a sense of foreboding that the end is coming, but not the one they hoped for. The glory days, she thinks to herself, were when she was 12 and life was simple. Dirty tactics were only for the enemy and there was no Resistance Army, just the six of them plus Appa and Momo gallivanting around the world. Death and gore were the last things they thought of and the only one plagued by nightmares was Aang, and that was probably due to that spiritual mumbo-jumbo of his.

Now _those_ were the glory days.

**Review Please.**

**I would just like to mention that my cousin is listening to Christmas music next to me…. It's the end of June right now…. She's weird. **


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